Bali Coffee

Bali is pretty famous for its coffee. It grows beans of various types and exports them all over the world. When you’re in Bali, in addition to the usual espresso drinks like Latte, Cappuccino etc., you will also find the traditional Bali coffee, the way the Balinese like it.

There are various ways to make it, but usually it is unfiltered, either by just pouring hot water onto the ground up beans, or using one of the lightly filtering french-style push down filter jugs.

Either way, you’ll end up with quite a lot of coffee residue (like sand) floating around in your coffee. Sometimes it will all sink to the bottom of the cup after a while, sometimes it will not. If you ask, sometimes a friendly restaurant will strain it for you, although they’ll think you’re a bit weird.

People generally drink it black, but restaurants will usually give you milk if you ask. Sometimes you’ll be given a cup, other times a fancy pot which you might get 2 or 3 cups out of. The ornate pots, and cups, can be bought in the Ubud market or any big tourist shop.

On restaurant menus Bali coffee is pretty cheap, it can be half the price of a Latte, although sometimes they will have an even cheaper option “Nescafe” which is their word for “instant coffee” (so avoid like the plague).

In the tourist shops and restaurants you may hear of the “cat poo” coffee which is some bizarre expensive strain made from coffee beans eaten and excreted by wild cats. That kind of coffee doesn’t actually taste that great and seems to be just something invented purely for tourists, and not what you’ll get if you order a regular Bali coffee, but you may want to buy some to take home as a novel souvenir or as gifts for people you don’t like.